


One Moment Different

by rasberrytears



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Eating Disorders, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, This will get darker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21672094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rasberrytears/pseuds/rasberrytears
Summary: Basically, when Varian and Quirin go to the castle in Queen for a Day, Rapunzel asks Varian to stay so they can figure out some things about the rocks.
Relationships: Cassandra & Varian (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 183





	One Moment Different

“Just… give me until my father returns.” Rapunzel pauses, thinking, before her face lights up, “Actually, why don’t you stay here for a bit? While I’m queen, I can do a lot more, and so we can work on figuring out the mystery behind the rocks together!” 

“Uh… okay! Hold on though!” Varian waves his hands in front of her, motioning for her to stay there. “I-I gotta tell my dad, first!” He races down the corridor, finally catching up to his father, who has stopped in front of the exit to the castle. Varian takes a moment to catch his breath before he speaks. “Dad! Wait!” 

Quirin sighs, looking down at Varian at the latter, his cheeks are red and he’s still trying to catch his breath. The princess is still standing at the other end of the hallway, so far away he can barely see her. “Varian… I told you, you aren’t messing with the rocks. I have the situation under control, you will only cause unnecessary damage.” Varian flinches slightly at that. 

“No, not-not that.” Varian waves his arms around, gesturing as if his erratic movements will convey his meaning for him. “Princess Rapunzel asked me to stay here for awhile, just while her parents are gone. We’re friends and… she wanted a bit of extra support.” 

“Oh, well…” Quirin sighs, “Alright. I suppose there aren’t any rocks in New Corona that you can mess with. If anything, it is probably safest if you stay here, and besides, who am I to deny the request of the princess?” 

Varian’s face lights up, he jumps up and does his victory dance, “Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re the best, dad!” He hugs his father, before running as quickly as he can back to where Rapunzel is. 

“I can stay!” He throws his arms up in the air, earning a few glares from passing servants, who just want to do their work in peace. “Alright, so, what are we doing first? I tried to get a sample of the rocks, but they just won’t break, so we have to figure something else out, after all, there aren’t any rocks in New Corona. Of course, they’re moving quickly, so there will be soon, but the goal is that we figure out how to destroy them before they reach the castle.” He’s talking extremely fast, and barely taking breaths between sentences. 

Rapunzel thinks for a moment, trying to understand every bit of Varian’s ramble. “Well… I suppose we could go into the library, there has to be something that mentions the rocks, or something similar.” Someone clears their throat from behind her, “Princess Rapunzel,” Nigel starts, “Your parents will be leaving tomorrow morning, it is best you prepare everything you will need for your new queenly duties you will have to attend to for the next few days.” 

“Oh! Right!” She grabs Varian’s hand, and rushes off to her room, Varian is being dragged along behind her, having a difficult time keeping up.

Varian gives Stan and Pete a wary look, as Rapunzel pushes him through the door. She grabs her paints and large stack of parchment. “Okay, we know what these look like,” She begins drawing out the spire like rocks, “And that they are unbreakable…” She draws Cassandra shattering her sword against it. 

“Plus they give off a reaction to you. They gave you your hair somehow, and that is also unbreakable and exhibits some kind of power that allows you to protect yourself.” Rapunzel writes down everything he lists off. 

They continue to list off the things they know until the sun begins to set, and the stars start showing up. 

Rapunzel yawns, stretching up her arms, “Oh, man, I have a lot to do tomorrow, here,” She gets up and holds out a hand to Varian, “Why don’t we get you a room to stay in?” Varian accepts her help up, collecting all of their research in his arms. 

She slowly opens the door, checking if Stan and Pete are actually still awake, she’s used to them falling asleep on duty, and she wants to make sure they get all the rest they need. The two are still up, which is a rare sight. “Hey, Stan? Do we have any empty rooms near here? Varian needs somewhere to sleep for the next few nights.” 

“Oh! Of course, princess, there’s one just down the hall, right next to Eugene.” She gives a contemplating look for a moment, Eugene’s room is as far down the hall and away from her as her parents could give him, and Varian’s already had such a hard time with how big the castle is in his few hours here. However, she supposes if she has Eugene look out for him in the morning, he should be fine. 

“Okay. Knock on Eugene’s door and make sure he gets Varian to the breakfast table in the morning.” Varian gives her a wary look, realizing she isn’t going with him. He awkwardly waves at her, and then follows Stan down the hall. 

Stan stops in front of the second furthest room from Rapunzels, all the way at the corner of the floor, he’ll have to walk almost a mile to get back and to the next floor, unless there is a staircase hiding behind one of the closed doors around him. Stan knocks on the one next to it. 

“Eugene.” a grunt and loud sigh is heard from inside the room followed by Eugene speaking, “Tell Cassandra, that I’m sick of her stupid eviction letters, she doesn’t have the authority to do that!” 

“That’s not what I’m here about. Varian will be staying in the room next to yours for the next couple days, and Princess Rapunzel has requested that you make sure he finds his way to the breakfast table tomorrow morning.” 

Eugene gives a loud yawn, “Alright, cool, cool. Tell the kid that if he wakes up first, he should get me, so I can bring him down there.”

“Got it.” Stan turns to Varian, “Eugene says-” 

“Yeah, no, I heard. I’ve got it, thanks.” Varian opens the door, stepping into a blank room, twice the size of his living room. “Wait… this is…” He turns around to see Stan has already left down the hall, “mine?” He walks in, quietly shutting the door behind him, and setting up all the papers on the dresser that sits against the wall. He works further into the night, finally dozing off, and waking up on the floor, by Eugene’s startled voice. 

“Kid?! What happened?!” 

Varian looks down, processing what happened. He had overworked himself again, his dad was always upset at him when he was caught passing out somewhere. “Oh… I think I just passed out. Sorry, I probably should have just gone to bed, but I wanted to work on this…” He gestures to the papers on the dresser as he stands up. 

Eugene blinks, seeming stunned for a moment. “Oh, um, well… yeah, you probably should have just slept. Are you okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. So… breakfast?” Varian felt uncomfortable under Eugene’s worried gaze. It looked like he was having to physically restrain himself from grabbing Varian and checking him for injuries, it was obvious that ‘passing out’ was meant literally. When he’d first walked in, it had looked like Varian had been hurt. The papers were strewn everywhere, and he had to check and see if there was an attack. 

“Yes! Breakfast! Right this way!” Eugene leads Varian out of the room, and outside to the gazebo with a table sitting under it, Rapunzel, Lance, Pascal, and Cassandra are already sitting there waiting for them. Eugene dramatically plops down next to Rapunzel, leaving only the seat between him and Lance. “Your new King for a few days has brought with him… your tiny genius child!” 

“I’m not a child.” Varian corrects him. 

“Riiiight… Of course not. So,” Eugene turns to Rapunzel, “What’s the plan for today.” She takes a deep breath, pulling out a long parchment scroll, “Well… I kind of have… a lot to do. Eugene? Do you think you could check up on the repairs for me, it needs to be done, but court may take a long time.” 

“Of course! Anything else I can help you with?” He leans in, staring into his eyes, with a mischievous grin on his face. She blushes bright red, pushing him away and laughing. 

“Wow, wow, not in front of the kids!” Cassandra teases, gesturing to Lance. Rapunzel stands up, collecting her scroll, “Alright! I’ve got some court to attend to!” She walks off, leaving the rest of them. Varian begins to stack plates, as Cassandra snorts. “You don’t have to do that. Someone will be here to clean it up in a few minutes.” Lance explains. 

“Oh, okay.” Varian sets them back down, before holding onto his arm awkwardly.

“Hey, Varian! How about you come with me to check in on the renovations, and then wait for Rapunzel to be done with the court. I can tell you some pretty interesting stories about Cassandra that might make you rethink liking her.” Eugene wants to check in on Varian today, after realizing the passing out incident. While Varian said it was fine, it just didn’t sit well with him. If you get too tired, you usually just lay down and sleep, but it was obvious Varian wasn’t expecting it, and he fell. Eugene may not know the kid too well, but he didn’t seem to be the kind of person to accept his papers being all over the floor, and underneath him. 

“Okay… but I think Cassie is too cool for whatever you say to make me not like her.” Varian looks up at him, smiling meekly. 

“I wouldn’t describe Cassandra as cool. Cold, maybe? Definitely not cool, though.” Cass and Lance had already left by the time they started walking to the front, where they were currently repainting the fencing around the side, near the entrance. They had a good view of the people in line to talk to Rapunzel, and it was obviously much longer than yesterday, from what Varian could tell. 

“So… the whole, passing out thing, is that normal, for you? Because if it is, we should really talk to a doctor.” Varian seemed to freeze at the word ‘doctor’, before taking a few moments to formulate a response. “Well… I… I mean, it is normal for me…” Eugene opens his mouth, ready to respond, “Varian, that’s not-”

“It’s fine! Though. I just tend to work a lot and forget to sleep,” Varian adds under his breath, “Or eat…” While the last part was quiet enough to be obviously not meant to be heard, Eugene refused to ignore it. “Look, kid, I know you want to help people, and I understand, I do too, but you can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself. Eating and sleeping are vital things you need to live, and, if you don’t do them… you can’t help people if you’re… if you’ve passed out.” If you’re dead. He almost said. The memory of Varian on the floor, papers strewn everywhere came to mind, what if his exhaustion had taken him then? How would Eugene have been able to deal if the kid really was dead, like it looked at first glance? It wasn’t a pleasant thought. 

Varian sighs, looking down at his feet, “Yeah… I know… I just- I have to do this, the rocks are getting closer to the castle, and… nobody else is doing anything about it.” Eugene gives him a sad smile, “I understand, but, promise me you’ll take care of yourself first?” Varian looks over at the renovations, noticing something, his eyes getting big for a moment, “The paint bucket is going to fall on you!” Eugene looks up just in time to get his face completely covered in paint. 

Cassandra laughs, startling them both. She was walking by when she saw the bucket of paint fall.  
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up! You know what, how about you two watch me implement my newly bestowed Kingly powers?” He turns to the people up on the roof, cupping his hands around his mouth, “Alright guys! After this we are going to do some renovations in my room. I’m thinking maybe a sunroof. What do you guys think?” Another bucket of paint falls on his face, Hook Foot shouts from the roof, “That one was on purpose!” Varian lets out a snort, as Cassandra cackles at him. 

“You know what? Whatever. We’ve checked up, it’s going fine, Varian, how about you come with me and we get cleaned up?” Varian looks down, only now realizing that the paint had splashed and gotten all over his clothes. “It’s not really that big of a deal, my outfit is usually covered in something, anyway.” 

“Well then we are getting you a new outfit! Honestly, this is old, anyway. What you need is something with style.” Varian seems conflicted, holding out his apron to look at all the stains, before sighing. “Fine.”

“That's the spirit! …We’ve gotta wash up, first. Can’t have the temporary King out in the town looking like a mess!” 

They walk up to a washroom, multiple people bursting into laughter every time Eugene passes. Varian just wipes the paint off, mostly just causing it to smear and stain his shirt. Eugene finally leaves wearing a new outfit, a dark green long coat, with a black vest, and white undershirt. His pants are black, and very tight, and his dark brown boots lace up, and almost reach his knees. 

“Alrighty! Let’s get you some new clothing! We’re going to make you look stylish, like you properly belong in the castle, eating with the Queen and King.” Varian gives him a blank expression, deciding that he is not quite sure about Eugene and his fashion taste. 

They walk down the streets, Eugene listing things that Varian should try on, and which shops they should stop at. “Hmm, you’ve got to figure out your colors that fit you best, I’d say a blue, once similar to your eyes and little streak in your hair. Of course, that’s probably best as an accent color, rather than the main thing, considering your overall look only has it as an accent. What would be the main color, though? White, maybe? You could also do a green, so long as you don’t get a conflicting shade. Oh! Here we are! First stop: Corona Fashion, the best place to get you a nice outfit.” 

They walk in, and a short woman meets them at the front, “Hello dears, what can I do for you both today?” Eugene gestures as dramatically as he possibly can to Varian, or, more specifically, what Varian is wearing, “Well you see, Madam Flick, this boy here is in need of something stylish, and castle-appropriate. He’s staying in the castle with Rapunzel and I for a bit, and it is most likely strange to see him eating with us while wearing this.” Varian crosses his arms, sending a slight glare at Eugene, who does not notice, as he is talking to Madam Flick about what colors Varian should wear. 

She pulls Varian by the arm, leading him over to a large stack of shirts. She pulls off his apron, and starts measuring his arms. “You know, I don’t usually suggest this, especially to someone of your age, but perhaps you would look best in a black outfit,” she lifts up the blue strip in Varian’s hair, and then looks directly into his eyes, making him shift nervously, “With a blue accent. Yes, that would be best.” She lets him go, moving to rummage through her stack of shirts, pulling out a gray blue button up, the color just a tiny bit more diluted than the strip of color in his hair. She thrusts the shirt into his arms, turning around to inspect the dark pants, checking for a size that would fit him.

As she searches through her store’s supply for the right pants, Eugene moves over toward Varian, “See, I told you blue would be a good accent color for you! I’m not so sure about black, though, seems… bleak, you know?” 

“Not really. It makes a bit of sense, I mean, my hair is black, and it has the blue accent streak, I assume she is just trying to match it.” Varian gives a slight shrug, not actually caring about all the clothing. He’s never been the best with fashion, usually just going with what would be more practical. 

Madam Flick comes back with black pants, and a light gray vest, handing them to Varian, and pushing him into the dressing room. “Here you are, the best outfit for you, I figured gray would be a better accent, less dark, make you stand out better. In you go now, you can wear the clothes out of here, so long as you pay, I wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of the day in something with all those stains.” Varian gets in the little area, pulling the curtain behind him. 

After changing into the new set of clothes, he looks in the mirror provided by the little semi room. It’s much more obvious that his hair is unnatural, and while the clothes fit him almost perfectly, they feel strange, and uncomfortable. His gloves don’t look right anymore, the bulky rubber seeming even bigger than they did before. He steps out, and Madam Flick looks very pleased with herself. “Yes, perfect, alright, right this way, that’ll be five gold, sir.” 

“Five gold?” Varian looks between the woman and Eugene in near astonishment, running his hands down the sides of his vest. 

“Here you go!” Eugene pulls out the gold pieces, handing them over, and turning to give Varian a wide grin. “Yeah, you’ve got to wear nice things, being the Queen’s guest and all.” He reaches out his hand, grabbing Varian’s arm softly, leading him to another building, selling gloves, and other lab safety clothing. “Come on, let's get you some gloves that properly fit you. 

They enter the building, and Eugene pulls Varian over to the gloves, allowing him to pick out ones that will fit him, but still work the way they need to. The next stop is Feldspar’s shop, to get Varian a new pair of boots, they are a dark gray, only lighter than his pants by enough that they show up no problem. They return to the castle once they have the whole new look put together, and Varian is wearing a whole new outfit aside from his trusty goggles, which he would never trade out, having built them with his father, who only slightly understood what all anything meant, but was helpful and supportive anyway. 

Walking through the doors, they pass a group of angry people, being pushed out of the main room. They push past the horde, moving to the side door of the throne room, where they hear Rapunzel.

“Gosh, what a huge disaster, and everybody knew it. I had one job to master… and I completely blew it.” She walked out of the room, sliding down against the wall. 

“Hey blondie, you doing all right?” Eugene says softly, moving to sit down next to her. 

She sighs, moving her head to smile at Varian, “Yeah, just a bit of a hard day is all. I love the new outfit, Varian! You look adorable.” He blushes slightly, more from embarrassment than anything else. 

“I know, right! I took him to get a new look after Hook Foot threw paint at us!”

“He only threw paint at you, and you kinda deserved it.” Varian corrects. 

“Yeah, well, your clothes were covered in paint anyway.” Rapunzel giggles at the conversation going on between them. 

“Hey, about we get dinner? Time sure went by, and Varian and I seem to have forgotten lunch, you made sure to eat though, right, blondie?” Eugene smiles at her, standing up before helping her up as well. 

“Yeah, I did, but you’re right, I am a bit hungry again. I think Lance is probably waiting for us, anyway, and if we’re late he’ll just eat all of our food.” Rapunzel responds, laughing a bit. 

“Well then let’s go!” The three of them making their way to the dinner room. 

Varian started talking about all the extra stuff he had listed down last night, after he left Rapunzel’s room. He had already started listing possible solutions he wanted to try on the rocks. Everyone ate, and only interrupted him to add any extra information they had. Throughout all of dinner, Varian never touched his food. Eugene furrowed his brows, “Varian, are you going to eat?”

“What?” Varian looks down at his plate, “Oh, yeah.” He begins shoveling food into his mouth, finishing about a fourth of his plate before continuing to talk about the rocks. Dinner finally ends, and Varian had not eaten anything more, but Eugene wasn’t going to push it… this time. He escorted Varian to their rooms, Varian now seeing that Lance had a room across from Eugene. 

“Now, I want you to actually sleep tonight, got it? I don’t want to wake you up for breakfast in the morning and find you passed out on the floor again, okay?” Varian looked slightly guilty, nodding his head, “Yeah… I’ll sleep.” He didn’t end up sleeping that night. On the plus side, he didn’t pass out, either, so he was able to claim he just got up early that morning. Eugene gave him a worried look, but he accepted that answer none the less. 

It was snowing this time, so they had to eat at the inside breakfast table. Varian couldn’t believe the castle had so many dining rooms, he just had a table with two chairs set up in his kitchen. 

Eugene went off to get Rapunzel, and they returned almost half an hour later, their hair filled with snowflakes. “I’m so making today a snow day! This is going to be so much fun!” Rapunzel squealed as she sat down in her chair. 

They ate while Lance recounted a strange dream he had last night, about a killer moth that was actually Shorty in a clown suit. Nobody was really sure what that meant, but it wasn’t like any of them actually wanted to find out, so they just stayed quiet. 

Rapunzel pushed open the doors to the balcony at the front of the castle, as Eugene hands Varian a light blue coat he had gotten for the kid earlier. 

“People and horses! As your temporary Queen, I hereby decree today… a snow day!” Everyone in the area cheer, and Rapunzel takes Varian by the hand, pulling him down the steps now frozen into a ramp. Eugene takes a moment to catch up with them. 

“Wow, this is so beautiful. Does it always snow this much?” Rapunzel is looking up at the sky in amazement, while Eugene moves over to Xavier, who is sitting by the fire. 

“Only once, according to legend.” Xavier speaks, telling the story of Zhan Tiri. “But… it’s just a legend, right?” Rapunzel sounds uneasy. 

“All legends are born of truth.” Xavier responds in his typical cryptic way. 

“Alright, it’s getting more windy, I think for everyone’s safety we all head indoors!” At Rapunzel’s command, everyone begins heading into the castle. 

The wind around them is howling, and Maximus walks in through the gates. “Max? What are you doing? Where are my parents?” He looks over, trying to portray how they fell. 

Once they’ve all gotten inside, Rapunzel starts freaking out. Eugene pulls aside the people from the Ugly Duckling and Varian. “Okay, we all know the King and Queen are out there by themselves, we also know that Rapunzel can’t go, being Queen, she’s all that the kingdom has for rulers at the moment. I know I’m going after them, I owe King Fredrick and Queen Arianna, but I would like to ask all of you to go with me. I trust you can all be very helpful, and we may need you all. So, who is coming with?” 

“I will.” Varian says, and everyone else begins nodding their head in agreement. 

“Me too.” and “Of course.” being heard around the corridor. Eugene smiles at them, as Maximus gives a salut. “Well, time to go save our royals.” 

They head through the snow, climbing up the mountain, until they get to a giant area where the ice and snow have fallen and blocked them. “No, no!” Eugene falls to his knees, assuming they were crushed by the ice. Max neighs at them, pointing something out in the distance, they all get up to look, and spot the caravan. 

“Okay guys, we need to take that ledge!” Eugene points out a small ledge leading to where the caravan is. 

“Wait! I have a better idea!” Varian pulls out a vial of blue liquid, pouring it on the edge of the cliff they are on, and the ice expands, making a path leading to where the caravan had crashed. 

“Kid, you’re a genius!” They walk across the newly formed ice bridge, making their way to where the crash is. They pull out a rope, and lower it down so that Eugene and Lance can get to the King and Queen. 

Once they are told the King is hurt, Varian makes his way down, only slightly more gracefully that Lance and Eugene themselves. He pulls out his belt of vials he had strapped to his legs, and pulls all the vials off, pulling off one of the wheels of the caravan, and attaches the wheel to the bottom of the rope, checking it to make sure it’s secure. He then has Queen Arianna and Eugene set the King down on it, and secures the King to the wheel with his belt. “Okay! Pull him up!” 

The snow suddenly stops, and the group is able to make their way back to the castle.

**Author's Note:**

> Eugene is going to lose his mind if both Varian and Rapunzel keep ignoring their feelings and forget to take care of themselves. This story will be getting much darker, Varian's lack of self care is a big issue, and puts everything on himself. While it is much less severe in this chapter, it won't be in future ones. I wanted to write Varian on a self destructive route as he is desperate to save all of Corona.


End file.
